Connect your instruments
Connection tester
See exactly what your analyzer is sending, even when Labgen can't read it.
When an analyzer is connected but no results appear in Labgen, three very different problems look identical from the dashboard. The connection tester tells them apart by showing the raw data exactly as the machine sends it — including data Labgen cannot read, which is the case you most need to see.
| What's really wrong | What you'd see without the tester |
|---|---|
| Another program is holding the port | "Device offline", no results |
| The analyzer is pointed at the wrong address | "Device offline", no results |
| Data arrives in a format we don't recognise yet | "Device offline", no results |
All three look the same. The tester shows which one it is in about a minute.
Using it
Nothing to install and nothing to configure — the tester comes with the bridge agent and is ready as soon as the device is paired.
- 1In Labgen, open Machine Interfacing → Diagnostics.
- 2Pick the analyzer. Leave Port blank — the tester watches the port the analyzer is already sending to.
- 3Click Start listening. The agent picks this up within about ten seconds.
- 4Run one sample, or a QC control, on the analyzer.
You should not need to touch the port, or the firewall
The agent is already listening on the port the analyzer sends to, and that port is already allowed through the firewall — otherwise results would never have worked at all. The tester watches that same traffic rather than opening a port of its own, so there is no new firewall rule to add and nothing to change on the analyzer. Setting a port is only for the unusual case where you suspect the analyzer is pointed somewhere unexpected; that port would need its own firewall rule, and the analyzer repointed at it.
The raw message appears on the left and whatever Labgen understood from it on the right: patient, sample id, test, and every parameter with its value and unit. Nobody needs to be at the lab PC — that is the point. The lab can be in one city and whoever understands the instrument in another.
Not sure which protocol?
You do not need to know. With the port left blank the tester watches every analyzer port the agent has open, ASTM and HL7 alike, and reads the format from the message itself.
Nothing is stored, and it switches itself off
The tester only watches; results carry on reaching your records exactly as usual while a session is open. Diagnostic frames themselves are shown live and then discarded — they are never saved to your lab's records, and the normal reporting path is unaffected. A session also stops on its own after thirty minutes, so closing the tab instead of pressing Stop leaves nothing running.
If the lab has no internet
The agent also serves the same tester on the lab PC itself, at http://localhost:9900, with its own Start button and the same optional port box. No login, no connection to us — useful when the lab's internet is the thing that is broken. A session started there is left alone by the website and runs until you stop it.
Reading the result
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "Port is already in use" | Only possible when you have typed a port yourself: another program owns it and is receiving your analyzer's data instead of Labgen. | Clear the port box so the tester watches the agent's own listener instead, or close the other program — a vendor utility or an older tester is the usual culprit. |
| Nothing at all after a sample | The analyzer isn't reaching this PC. | Check the host address and port set on the analyzer, and that Windows Firewall allows inbound 5555/5556. |
| Raw data and values both appear | The whole chain works. | If Labgen still shows no result, it arrived but didn't match a tube — look in the Unmatched list. |
| Raw data appears, but "No parser recognised this message" | The cable, port and machine are all fine. We simply don't read that format yet. | Send us that raw text. It is exactly what's needed to add support for the machine. |
Raw data is always shown
Even when nothing can be parsed, the bytes are displayed. That distinction matters: a machine that is talking but unreadable is a very different problem from one that is not talking at all, and it is the difference between a small change on our side and an afternoon of rewiring on yours.
Is it connected right now?
The agent reports in every thirty seconds whether or not samples are running, so the Online badge in Machine Interfacing means the link is alive — not merely that a result arrived at some point in the past. A device whose agent stops shows as offline within about a minute.
For first-time installation see Analyzer setup, step by step; for how the pieces fit together see the Machine interfacing overview.